Monitor on Psychology - June 2012 - (Page 46)

university or spending several long weekends or a summer session in physical residence should count — something DeMers says the licensing boards never intended. When these students are told they’re not eligible for licensure because they lack a year of residency, says DeMers, some get mad at the licensing boards. “And when they go back to the school, the school says, ‘We didn’t guarantee licensure; we designed it with an eye toward licensure,’” he says. “It’s a parsing of words.” The result is students having to seek licensure not where they want to live or practice, but simply where they can get a license. Now some of those states with ambiguous definitions are rewriting their rules to clarify exactly what they mean by residency. To DeMers, that trend — coupled with CoA’s decision — suggests the field is drawing a line. “It’s not embracing this model of training, so it’s not a question of some states being early adopters and others will come along later,” he says. “It’s actually going the other direction.” According to Klonoff, CoA is open to revisiting the issue if technology ever advanced to the point that research showed it could meet all of CoA’s concerns about enculturation and quality control. “CoA uses implementing regulations to inform the public how they think,” she says. “It means it’s not set in stone and that at a later point it may be the case that CoA may make a different decision.” Online components Of course, neither ASPPB nor APA is against the use of online components as a supplement to traditional learning. “Online opportunities for learning can enrich programs,” says Cynthia D. Belar, PhD, executive director of APA’s Education Directorate. “Some online work can be very rich and complex in terms of promoting learning.” That belief is supported by the Department of Education’s meta-analysis, which found that students whose programs combined both online and face-to-face elements had better learning outcomes than those in purely online or purely face-toface programs. Most effective were blended programs in which online instruction was collaborative or instructor-directed rather than those in which students worked independently. Again, the report emphasizes that online education’s advantages may stem from differences in content, pedagogy and time spent learning rather than the medium per se. Alliant International University is one school that combines face-to-face and online instruction in its clinical psychology training. “The online methodology is most frequently used for foundational courses — courses like biological bases of behavior, perception and cognition — where you’re teaching a knowledge base as opposed to a clinical skill,” says psychologist Russ Newman, PhD, JD, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “You wouldn’t try to teach someone how to do a psychological assessment online, nor would you teach them 46 how to do psychotherapy online, or just online.” For those courses where being online is appropriate, says Newman, the methodology brings some advantages not possible in traditional courses. In one class, for example, students from Alliant’s different campuses came together virtually and were able to share very different cultural perspectives. For universities, adds Newman, online courses aren’t the cost-saving panacea many believe they are. (Finley adds that online courses aren’t time-savers for faculty, either, explaining that online courses take her twice as much time as traditional courses to prepare the first time she teaches them and one-anda-half times longer thereafter.) “If you just have a bunch of canned online courses that you’re delivering, it probably is much less expensive,” says Newman. But, he says, to do the kind of online education Alliant provides means developing special online courses, training faculty to deliver them and then maintaining courses over time. For Newman, that investment is worth it — and a sign of progress. “In the early versions of distance learning, you took a PowerPoint, put it online and let people go through it,” he says. “Online education has come a long way.” n Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C. Learn more Allen, I.E., & Seaman, J. (2011). “Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011.” Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group, LLC. www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/ goingthedistance.pdf. APA. (2002). “Principles of Good Practice in Distance Education and Their Application to Professional Education and Training in Psychology.” www.apa.org/ed/resources. APA. (2010). Implementing Regulation C-27: Distance and electronically mediated education in doctoral programs. Commission on Accreditation. www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/ about/policies/implementing-regulations.aspx. U.S. Department of Education. (2010). “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies.” www2.ed.gov/ rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/ finalreport.pdf. MONITOR ON PSYCHOLOGY • JUNE 2012 http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/goingthedistance.pdf http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/goingthedistance.pdf http://www.apa.org/ed/resources http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/about/policies/implementing-regulations.aspx http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/about/policies/implementing-regulations.aspx http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - June 2012

Monitor on Psychology - June 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
Give an Hour founder is one of Time magazine’s ‘most influential’
APA treatment guidelines panels are being formed
APA supports ‘Speak Up For Kids’
In Brief
Time Capsule
Random Sample
Judicial Notebook
Questionaire
APA honors Howell
Science Watch
Science Directions
What you should know about online education
Speaking of Education
Psychologist Profile
Redefining masculinity
Miscarriage and loss
Something for everyone
Candidates weigh in
Division Spotlight
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - June 2012